Quite right!: Munira Mirza | part one

This week, Michael is joined by Munira Mirza. Raised in Oldham and educated at Oxford, Munira worked at Policy Exchange before serving as Deputy Mayor of London under Boris Johnson and later as Director of the No.10 Policy Unit, where she helped shape the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto. She now leads Civic Future and the think tank Fix Britain.

In the first of this two-part interview, Munira reflects on Labour’s vulnerability in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election, and the ‘serious threat’ it faces if the Muslim votes flees to the Greens. She discusses the politicisation of religious identity, the influence of Islamism in Britain, and what she sees as a failure of public authorities to confront hard truths.

They also discuss the news this week that Valdo Calocane – the man who killed three people in Nottingham in 2023 – was released from hospital in 2020 because health professionals were concerned about the disproportionate number of black men who were being detained in the mental health system. Munira argues that fear of being accused of institutional racism has distorted decision-making, a scandal of potentially greater magnitude than the grooming gangs and with serious consequences for public safety.

Finally, she revisits Brexit and the 2019 realignment, defending the decision to leave the EU and arguing that levelling up was an attempt to fix a broken economic model built on high immigration and weak productivity.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(2696)

Americano: how Steve Hilton plans to win California

Steve Hilton is the British immigrant backed by President Trump who is running to be the next governor of California. On the podcast Steve and Freddy discuss his campaign, one slogan being Cali-fordab...

26 Jul 0s

The Edition: Burnham’s chaotic takeover

This week: has Andy Burnham really brought change to Downing Street – or merely repackaged Labour’s old guard? Has Ed Miliband been sidelined by being sent to the Foreign Office, a ‘non-job’ in which ...

23 Jul 0s

The Book Club: 160 years of Beatrix Potter

This week marks the 160th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth. In this week’s Book Club podcast, I’m joined by Penny Bradshaw, author of An A–Z of Beatrix Potter, and the historian and biographer Ka...

22 Jul 0s

Quite right!: inside Burnham’s brutal Labour purge

Andy Burnham has begun his premiership with a sweeping reshuffle, purging many of Keir Starmer’s closest allies and installing a cabinet in his own image. Has he ended Labour factionalism – or simply ...

21 Jul 0s

Spectator Out Loud: Michael Gove, Count Binface, Michael Simmons & Graeme Thomson

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Michael Gove explains why he is against more security for MPs; taking a brief break from campaigning in clacton as count binface, Jon Harvey explains why Christopher...

21 Jul 0s

Coffee House: Burnham becomes Prime Minister

As Andy Burnham unveils his first Cabinet, join Tim Shipman and James Heale for a special live edition of Coffee House. Who’s in, who’s out? What do the appointments reveal about Burnham’s priorities,...

20 Jul 0s

Reality Check: Fact checking Rupert Lowe on Joe Rogan

Last week, the Joe Rogan Experience podcast released a two-hour interview with Rupert Lowe, leader of the Restore party. Was Lowe there merely to create content – or is Restore a serious political par...

20 Jul 17min

Americano: what did Lindsey Graham want?

On Sunday, the Senator Lindsay Graham died suddenly having just return from a trip to Ukraine. It is believed he suffered from a sudden heart problem. Spectator contributor Dan McCarthy reflects on Gr...

19 Jul 30min